Continuity mistake: In the scene where Blair escapes with Marcus and Barnes launches an explosive into the tunnel, Marcus hops onto Blair to save her from the scorching flames. After the fire, Marcus' coat would have been burnt to a crisp, his hair singed off and the skin on his back fried. More evidence pointing to this was that his coat was merely one previously worn by a Resistance fighter, not special in any way, and he has regular skin and hair. (01:06:50)
Continuity mistake: When John Connor is carried to the helicopter, we can see the older lady Virginia in the helicopter. After the helicopter becomes airborne, Virginia is not seen again. (01:41:10 - 01:41:50)
Continuity mistake: This is right after Conner jumps down to the lower level to get to the grenade launcher and hurts his shoulder. He is crawling away from the T-800 and the shot is from right behind Conner's head. The T-800 is practically right on top of John, but when he shoots the oven and the molten steel lands on the T-800, the shot shows John like 30 feet away. (01:41:15)
Continuity mistake: When Marcus was freed by Blair and they are trying to escape through the shaft, Barnes shoots a rocket at them. Marcus lies on top of Blair as the fire goes through the shaft, but you can see that Blair's hair is sticking out from under Marcus. When they get up, Blair's hair is not burnt at all. (01:06:40)
Continuity mistake: When the Saab sedan is destroyed as it flees the fuel station, it is launched into the air tumbling end over end. But a moment later, as it's about to fall onto the awning, it's rolling sideways. (00:38:25)
Continuity mistake: When Williams is hung up by her parachute after ejecting, Marcus climbs the structure next to her. She asks for her knife and with her right hand begins to cut herself loose. Once she cuts through, she immediately begins to drop of course, but Marcus is able to catch her in mid-air by her right hand. Suddenly the knife is gone. There's no way that in the split second between cutting through the strap and Marcus catching her in mid-air she would have had time to release the knife. (00:47:00)
Continuity mistake: When Marcus is driving the big tow truck down the highway, he smashes into the back of a red VW Jetta with custom chrome wheels that is parked on the right side of the road. A few shots later, the same car is shown again, now on the left side of the road, and is hit again. That's fair enough, as the truck seemed to reverse direction when the first bike crashed into the bus. But seconds after the second hit, this car is again on the RIGHT side of the road, and is struck a third time (this is actually the first hit, shown now from a different angle). (00:41:05)
Continuity mistake: When the Resistance has a Hydrobot on the table testing out the jamming shut down signal, they have recycled footage when editing the film together. When they strap the Hydrobot down to the table, the shot changes to a close frontal shot of the Hydrobot and the straps have gone. The shot then pans out to a more distant perspective and the straps re-appear. The shot goes close up and the straps vanish again. (00:26:15)
Continuity mistake: When the Saab 900 car is destroyed by the Harvester, it already has momentum and you can see whats left of the car thrown in an arc into the air. When it lands however, it simply drops vertically, which it wouldn't do, it should have fallen in a decreasing arc. (00:38:25)
Continuity mistake: This is near the end of the tow truck chase scene. Just when the truck hits the railing and Kyle and Star are thrown from the truck, Kyle is caught in the right hand, Star is caught in the left hand. But when the shot is coming from inside the transporter, Kyle is dropped from the left hand and Star is dropped from the right hand. (00:44:20)
Continuity mistake: John Connor, whilst battling the T-800, fires a shot into a wall to create an opening. Star jumps through the hole to the left, Kyle jumps to the right, and John jumps through the centre, yet in the next shot Kyle has landed in the centre and John has landed on the right. (01:27:35)
Continuity mistake: When Kyle and Star are fleeing from the gas station, being chased by the motorcycle Terminator, the wrecking ball on the truck is swinging wildly. In the next shot it's firmly hooked to the left side of the truck and then in the next shot Kyle is told to release the ball and it's loose again. (00:42:25 - 00:43:00)
Continuity mistake: You can see 5 point belt harnesses on Kyle and Marcus when they are in the Jeep. Yet you never see them put them on, or take them off. Kyle is pushed out of the driver's seat once they stop. (00:34:10)
Continuity mistake: When Marcus and Kyle are being chased by Moto-Terminators, Kyle kicks the oil barrel off the truck to hit one of the Moto-Terminators. Later, as Kyle reaches rearward to release the tow hook, the barrel is shown still on the truck, standing as it was before Kyle kicked it off. (00:41:25)
Continuity mistake: In the original terminator film, Sarah is recording tape number 7 when she mentions Kyle, and the line 'a person could go crazy.'. However in Terminator Salvation, it is tape 28, and she now says ' tape 28 of sarah Connor to her son john' (00:19:30)
Continuity mistake: Right after Marcus gets the Jeep to start, they begin running from the Aerostat. They start off going down a steep hill and the windshield is practically sparkling clean. Once they get to the road at the bottom, the shot shows the windshield caked with mud. (00:34:00)
Continuity mistake: When the Harvester destroys the Saab sedan that is fleeing the fuel station, the car's chassis is shown sailing through the air, stripped of its interior and drivetrain, throwing random sparks, but not on fire in any way because there's really nothing left that would burn. But moments later, it is completely engulfed in flames as it crashes through the awning over the gas pumps. (00:38:20)
Continuity mistake: During the tow truck chase scene, Marcus basically bangs a U-turn and the one bike hits the bus. As they go under the overpass, it has a shot from directly above the truck showing Kyle on the bed right at the center of the cab's rear window. Then the very next shot has Kyle at the passenger door and he asks "where's the other one?" But then the shot moves to a ground level shot looking up as the bike jumps over the truck and Kyle is now standing back on the bed, not at the passenger door. (00:41:30)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Marcus finds Blair hanging from the power tower, it shows a dark tan stripe around her eyes, but in the following shots it is much lighter and less dark than the previous seconds. (00:47:00 - 00:48:00)
Continuity mistake: Just after Marcus rips out his chip and throws the stool, he jumps to the lower level. As he walks up to the resistance soldier on the MRI table, if you look at the top edge of the screen, you can see that the awning is all damaged from being shot by the terminator that Kyle stabs in the neck. However, the scene where this occurs happens about a minute after Marcus jumps to the lower level. (01:32:55)
Answer: Perhaps, but once the submarine captain learns that John Connor has just jumped off the helicopter, what is he supposed to do? Let John drown? John must have known the Captain would have little choice but to pick John up.
XIII